Successful Beginning for Yates-Roush Team

By Shav Glick

Feb. 9, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —

For years, Robert Yates and Jack Roush have been bitter rivals in the business of building powerful race car engines.

Both built Fords, but they were trying as hard to beat one another as they were to beat the Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Dodges in NASCAR’s Winston Cup. This year, with the series name changed to Nextel Cup, Ford made a change, too.

Rather than have a Yates program and a Roush program, Ford officials decided to have a Ford program, to bring the two old adversaries together in a unified program. In other words, share and share alike.

The results have been remarkable.

One Ford Taurus, driven by Greg Biffle and prepared by Roush, won the pole Sunday for the Daytona 500 after lapping Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile rectangular track with a speed of 188.387 mph. Another Ford, driven by Elliott Sadler and prepared by Yates, will start alongside Biffle in next Sunday’s Great American Race with a speed of 188.355 mph.

And two more Fords, driven by veterans Ricky Rudd and Dale Jarrett, who won the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night, qualified fourth and fifth. Rudd drives for the Wood Brothers, but his engine is from Roush. Jarrett is with Yates.

Only Dale Earnhardt Jr., in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, managed to intrude on the Fords by qualifying third at 188.210.

Brisk winds bothered all the 45 qualifiers, dropping most of their speeds below earlier practice times.

Biffle, a second-year Cup driver from Vancouver, Wash., seems to have found the secret to the daunting Daytona oval. His first win last year came in the Pepsi 400, Daytona’s summer race.

“The crew deserves the credit for this car being on the pole,” Biffle said. “The driver does not do a whole lot to be on the pole here. But it’s pretty exciting, to think about leading the field to the green for the Daytona 500.”

It will be the first time for a Ford on the pole since Jarrett in 2000, but only the second time in the last eight years. It is the first for Roush engines at Daytona.

Only Biffle and Sadler are assured their starting positions in the 500. All the others will race for spots Thursday in two Gatorade 125-mile qualifying races.

The Taurus has new lines this year, a different nose, a new cylinder head and a new set of templates for the car, but more important has been the cooperation among the teams.

“This was not an overnight success,” said Greg Specht, operations manager for Ford Racing Technology. “We were really unhappy with our performance last year in qualifying for the Daytona 500, so we started the day after the race. We got together back in Dearborn [Mich.] and kind of held hands and agreed that we had to change things.

“So it has literally been a 364-day effort to get here. We won’t be happy until we win the Daytona 500. That is the barometer.”

It may be the barometer, but the catalyst is the cooperation that has grown between Yates and Roush.

“I certainly had respect for [Robert] and I hope he had respect for me,” explained Roush, “but from the beginning of the racing season, which would be Daytona, until the end, we wouldn’t talk to one another. We wouldn’t acknowledge each other. We wouldn’t shake hands. By all means, we wouldn’t wish another good luck.

“We were struggling and competing for the same bit of support that Ford would give somebody. It was kind of a sibling rivalry that Ford saw was a problem. If they invested money on a development program with Robert, they wouldn’t share it with me and if they invested with me, I insisted they wouldn’t give it to Robert.”

With Dodge and Chevy teams working together, and Toyota about to start a one-team project, it became apparent that Ford’s efforts were counterproductive.

Ford said, “Why don’t you guys cooperate.” It was probably more a demand than a suggestion.

On Nov. 27, Yates and Roush put their engine programs together and now they are partners in a new shop in North Carolina, sharing what were once secrets in the fine art of designing, building and tuning 358-cubic-inch, cast-iron V8 engines.

Both Sadler and Jarrett made comments, however, they may later regret.

Said Sadler: “With the new nose and tail it feels like the Fords actually have a gun at a gunfight now instead of what we had last year.”

Said Jarrett: “Obviously the nose has made a big difference and it’s reduced the amount of drag we’ve had here the last three years. That was a key to what’s happening.”

NASCAR takes a dim view of one make being as dominant as Ford appears to be, at least for the first weekend of the 2004 season. If the 500 is top-heavy with Fords up front, watch for changes.

This is the year of change, but not even having Nextel’s black and yellow in place of Winston’s red and white around Daytona is as surprising as the friendship pact between Robert Yates and Jack Roush.

Speedweek Facts

The first two positions were set Sunday during NASCAR Daytona 500 qualifying at the Daytona International Speedway. The remaining spots in the 43-car field will be determined after the twin 125-mile qualifying races Thursday:

1. G. Biffle, Ford...188.387 mph.

2. E. Sadler, Ford...188.355 mph.

Others

3. D. Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet...188.210 mph.

5. D. Jarrett, Ford...187.884 mph.

13. M. Waltrip, Chevrolet...187.274 mph.

22. R. Gordon, Chevrolet...186.652 mph.

37. T. Stewart, Chevrolet...185.219 mph.

39. J. Gordon, Chevrolet...184.721 mph.

Complete results...D12

SCHEDULE

A look at the scheduled races this week at Daytona International Speedway: